In part 3 of my personal milestone series, we will discuss in great detail exactly how you can reach the 250 yard milestone…first once, then consistently.
Here are the basic factors that hold most golfers back from driving a ball this far:
You’ll need a minimum clubhead speed of around 89 mph just to hit a perfect ball 250. It’s more like that you will need 92-94 if you are to live consistently around the 250 mark.
At the minimum speed, you will need to find the center of the clubface most of the time. This will result in a smash factor of 1.50, which would be 135 mph of ball speed divided by 90 mph clubhead speed. The typical golfer averages 1.42 smash, which would be more like 128 mph, for a net loss of 20-25 yards.
You will need to hit upwards on the ball at the moment of the strike. Most golfers are hitting drives with a descending blow. An angle of attack of +5 degrees or more is great – but any amount helps.
250 yards will now require a driver that reasonably fits you. Be careful not to just accept the stated loft on a driver model, like 10.5 degrees, since they differ quite a bit in their performance. However, it is likely that you’ll need a simple stiff shaft at this speed. You will likely need to learn how to adjust your driver’s loft and weighting, if possible.
It would be optimal to hit the ball with about 14 degrees of launch and about 2100 rpm of spin. This is still a relatively high drive, but not quite the rainbow that the lesser milestones required. High launch and low spin are your friends. You should be able to identify an efficient ball flight by now.
Which of these areas are you weakest in? How would you know? How would you get them measured?